Ange Postecoglou is ruthlessly weeding out the Nearly Men.
And it’s time to see just how different Tottenham Hotspur really are.
Eric Dier was the latest to be booted into touch this week as the Aussie’s revolution in north London clicked up a gear. It’s a good move for the former England international. Bayern Munich remain a monster club.
But he was part of the ‘Spurs-y’ problem. The manager is clearly a man-in-a-hurry. And he’s not having it. Those Spurs’ fans who still speak about what shoulda, coulda happened under Mauricio Pochettino’s ultimately potless reign are doing so with their phoney heroes now elsewhere.
The obvious exception is, of course, ‘Sir’ Harry Kane, whose goals put a gloss on results that the rest of his colleagues benefited from. But Hugo Lloris has been sidelined. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is struggling to get a game.
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There aren’t too many nailed-on remnants of the not-so-glory years still around to be selected. And that’s because the Aussie is killing convention in north London. On pretty much every level going.
To use Muhammad Ali’s famous words - the club’s usual modus operandi is to ‘fly like butterflies and sting like them.’ Or else to wrench some sad twist from a situation that promised so much - the reference for that is pretty much every season going.
But the plain-talking Antipodean (is there any other kind?) has decided this is no way to run his team. And so he’s ripped up that particular piece of paper - and tossed it into the bin.
Defender Radu Dragusin has arrived from Genoa (Alex Morton/Tottenham Hotspur F.C./REX/Shutterstock)No, to a group that almost lands a trophy. No, to a group that sometimes entertains. No, to a group where only half of them are at the level every week. And a big, fat ‘Yes’ to the blueprint that Postecoglou implemented at Celtic.
When he pitched up in Glasgow, it quickly became evident that the name of the game was to smother. I remember watching an Old Firm tussle at Celtic Park a couple of years ago and the Bhoys absolutely ran riot.
They charged about like men possessed. Sixth odd-thousand, green smoke billowing up from the stands, no away fans. Carnage. Three-up after a first-half battering. Brilliant - if you were a Celt.
Scenes like that left an imprint on your correspondent’s brain and the blueprint now being followed is a fairly obvious one. Contrary to what most punters think, managers aren’t stupid.
If they have a system that works and a group of players that can deliver it and it has been successful elsewhere, why would you not try to replicate it? And so, that’s what big Ange has done. Those that can deliver, will stay. Those that can’t, won’t.
The first requirement is that you can run. Second, you need to be young. And thirdly, play. Look at the signings since he’s arrived. It’s another argument as to whether decision-maker-in-chief Daniel ‘Teflon’ Levy has bought into the narrative.
Judging from the fact that he is the bloke signing the cheques, you might consider he has. Radu Dragusin is the latest recruit. Reports from Italy suggest he can get about the pitch. Micky van de Ven likewise. Destiny Udogie is going to be a monster.
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Postecoglou, by posting these defenders on the halfway line, is asking them to be brave. To back themselves with the ball in front of them - and also heading towards their own goal. His vision will be on show at Old Trafford.
It’s an acid test. A big television audience at a ground where Spurs’ record over the past two decades has been pretty awful. Four victories, two draws and 14 defeats. But Manchester United, for all the fact they lack the stardust of yesteryear, are still a significant scalp.
Postecoglou has put a new spring in the step of everyone at Tottenham Hotspur. It’s time to find out if they are the real deal.
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